Gather: Stonereach, Blackstone October 26, 606 By: Simeon Silvercord.
I arrived late to the gather myself, having had affairs of state to attend to that delayed my departure from Fellmyst. When I arrived however I found the adventurers in good spirits and looking forward to the coming nights fight. Many were boastful and smiling, but I could see they were all a bit nervous. Nothing overt, mind you, just the number of times they checked and rechecked their equipment. How they made certain to casually bump into as many friends before the nights work as possible, and the little things that could mean so much later.
When I arrived in town with my horses I ran into Sathen who offered me a bed in his tent within the encampment. I happily accepted and found Jester was staying there also. I had not adventured with Jester in many years, but he looked as if he hadn’t aged a day. I guess that’s the way it is with Mystics. I do find Sathen usually has an extra bed when I arrive. I know in part its in case I arrive, but I also know its because many other adventurers seem put of by the elf. Sathen is an accomplished Wizard in his own right, but his noble upbringing within Quentari has made him appear to come of with an I am better than you attitude to many adventurers. Talking with him for any decent length of time quickly shows how friendly Sathen can be, but many adventurers sadly do not take the time to get to know him I fear.
Anyway I unpacked my equipment and did my own nervous equipment checking before heading to the tavern. I was hungry after my long trip and eager to talk to those planning our defense and see how our strategy for the night was coming along. When I got to the tavern I found Lord Dawnware busily titling young wizards. The ceremony was mildly modified from the normal to conserve resources for the coming fighting, but it was a joyous occasion. I suspect strongly that Lord Dawnware had purposely planned the ceremony for today in order to increase moral with the adventurers. Lord Dawnware eventually started going a bit horse and asked me to take over as Master of Ceremonies to save his voice for casting that night. I happily obliged and I hope I did a good job as a stand in for him.
After that I got some food and destroyed some undead as I talked to my friends. I had come across the Ducal Encampment on my way into Stonereach and had news to impart. I shared the location of the encampment of The Dead Mans Guild and we decided to attach them in daylight while they were still preparing for the nights fight. Obviously if we could destroy as many of our foes in the daylight when they were weaker, than face them on the field at night all at once, we would prefer to do that.
The fight ensued and it turned out The Dead Mans Guilds favorite spell was Death. This caused the fight to drag longer than expected and also drained much more resources than we had first thought it might. In the end we felt that whilst we had not defeated them, we had weakened them enough to make them a non-threat during the coming nights fighting.
When we returned to the Tavern to make more plans and gather our equipment we found Duke Blackstone entering the tavern. His Grace was bringing us news and equipment to aid in the fighting that night. We spent some time speaking with him and making requests for items we thought may be of major import and then His Grace departed. We settled in to final preparations.
With less than an hour before the expected onslaught of undead I gathered all my gear and made my way through the tavern to get us all going in the direction of the fight. It seemed that at the last moment we had to keep waiting one more minute for everything. After a few of those 1 more minutes I decided enough was enough and loudly pointed out that the clock was ticking. If we didn’t have our circles up and our equipment in place within 45 minutes then we would have to try and get set up DURING the fight. This seemed to jar some people out of their sluggishness and we began to head up to the field.
Once there we found the building was now completely substantial as far as we could tell. The riddle on the door (which I cannot fully recall but am hoping either Sir Seronia Merritt or Duncan will put up in their journal entries for me to edit in) led us to believe that only a spirit could enter and open the door form the inside. From its wording it made us think one of us may have to die and not receive a life spell to gain access. We began to look for an adventurer with a strong spirit to volunteer when Sir Seronia Merritt suggested we attempt opening the door by having a volunteer die and then casting a life spell on them in the final moments it was possible. Thus giving them the longest chance to perform whatever function they would have to perform and still keeping them out of danger. Sathen volunteered and I pulled a life item out of my backpack to have ready. Sir Merritt’s life spells would be needed far more upon the field than my bulky life item, so now was the time to use it to try and give us a head start on preparing the battlefield.
Once Sathen was dead, Seronia decided to read the riddle over and over a few times to help Sathen out if he could hear us. I still don’t know if he could understand anything of what we said during that time, but the door did open and a life spell was administered to his body before his spirit would have departed for resurrection.
Quickly we stormed onto the empty field and viewed the 3 doors we would have to defend in the outer wall. We could also see the one inner door, which we would be fighting to keep closed the rest of the night. We were running late and we knew it. Immediate Lord Dawnware sent 3 small teams to secure the doors as we began the preparation for the formal magic to build the 2 circles of power. Sir Merritt was building the Earth Circle and many nobles, healers, and runners were invested within it as it was built. The same persons moved over to where the Celestial Circle was to be and waited for me to begin casting. Sir Merritt and I got a few questions as the preparations didn’t look right to a few of the adventurers for the Celestial Circle and we explained we were building it as an extended Hearth such that spells could be manifolded within by those able to do so. 5 minutes later both circles were up and Lord Dawnware began dividing the adventurers into teams for combat. We placed most of our equipment within the Celestial circle and announced it would be the aid station during the coming fight. People of course asked why and we made the quick explanation that the Earth circle would be busy casting Destroy Formal Magic upon each spirit bottle we obtained during the night, and performing resurrections on our fallen comrades. The Celestial circle was therefore the better option for having potions run out to the doors as needed or additional scrolls, replacement weapons, and what not.
All that action complete we all took our posts and began to wait for the undead. We had 5 teams on the field that night Door 1, Door 2, Door 3, Roving Reinforcements, and Logistics (kitchen staff and those minding the circles of power). It was difficult to wait and we spent the time conversing and getting to know each other as well as making certain everyone had everything they needed for the coming fighting. I had personally taken all of my equipment to the field to be given out where needed. I know Duncan, Caliphar and several others had done the same and I think that’s part of the reason we did as well as we did.
I should pause in my tale at this point to put in what information we had about our battlefield, as without it the rest of this entry will make little sense. The magic of this place (brought through time as it was) was such that only a Master Undead could enter into the final door. The undead had to bring its spirit bottle with it for 2 reasons. First it was necessary for it to have it with it so that it could claim the prize (I know a lot of its). Secondly the magic of the area was such that a bottled creature could not come within 300 yards of the battlements without beginning to magically unravel as it were without its bottle upon it. The magic of this place also prevented rifting, gate travel, or spirit walking of any sort within 300 yards of the structure in question. This meant that all undead must walk in and risk their immortality for the prize they coveted so much. It was also discovered that the time magic present upon the field prevented us from studying or refreshing any of our skills until 2 – 3 hours into the battle.
It was shortly after 6pm that evening when e first heard the marching footsteps
of undead. Time had seemed to slow terribly for us in the hour before 6pm and
it may have been something of the magic bringing this structure to its place
that caused the last hour we waited to stretch and seem like 2 hours. After
the fight ended though the magic seemed to correct themselves and the position
of the moon and stars once again agreed with my timepiece. It seems that this
time of year timepieces often gain an hour upon the stars and I believe it was
no coincidence that the magic of this ancient undead city finished at that time.
Shortly after 6pm gate 3 cried out they were under attack. I was close and ran over to assist. Cotton, Ro, Crimson, Blue, Panda, and some others were assigned to this gate. I apologize for not remembering everyone’s name, but they all fought valiantly. Looking out the gate all I could see were gaunt undead with glowing eyes of various colors. Immediately they breached the gate and began pushing us back into the courtyard. The roving team arrived and slammed into the undead bolstering our defense and halting the advance. This wasn’t enough however and Lord Dawnware called out for the other gates to send reinforcements. That turned the tide and the undead were pushed outside of the gate within a few minutes. Gate 3 at this felt the brunt of the first attack and Gate 2 held off some minor attempts at entry. I believe these attempts were more to keep extra reinforcements from heading over to gate 3 than any actual attempt at entry.
After about 20 total minutes of fighting the call went up that a bottle of Wine had been found and a general cheer went up through the defenders. Wine was our prearranged signal for a spirit bottle. Thus the undead wouldn’t know where to concentrate their attacked to attempt to recover their fallen masters bottle. Five minutes later there was a larger cheer as I announced for Guildmaster Marr that he now had an empty bottle of wine. At the time of this writing though I still have no idea whom it was we destroyed that fight. But after the bottle was destroyed all offense against the gates ceased for a time.
We then decided to increase the size of our roving force by pulling a few people from each gate. We also put up walls of force on each gate which would stop minor undead almost completely and slow down a major assault a second or 2, which we hoped would allow our reinforcement team a little more get into position to assist time.
15 minutes later we were not disappointed. Hoards of lesser undead began to attempt to gain entry. Rotlung had made his appearance upon the field and was dispelling the walls to allow his minions entry. They were not difficult to dispatch, but the sheer numbers of them made the fight interesting and did their job. 10 minutes into the assault the call “Condition Rabbit” went up on the field and I am other ran to the center of the courtyard. “Condition Rabbit” was the prearranged signal for a single creature breach that was believed to be able to open the final door. Thus all available personnel would immediately kill anything running in the courtyard and then sort out who needed healing and who should stay dead (like the undead.)
Rotlung didn’t make it very far before being trapped by an imprison. Though when the killing blow was delivered a great vengeance spell went off. Cotton I believe suffered the strikes of at least 700 daggers as he fell upon the ground next to Rotlung. Rotlung was however trying to stand back up, his contingent life spell having been activated. Rotlung never made it up to his knees before being cut down again and guarded until he dissipated. Cotton was of course healed almost as fast. Shortly after Rotlung finally dissipated the hoards of lesser undead began to crumble to dust and the second attack had been successfully repelled. Lord Dawnware cried out in a loud voice “Huzzah Blackstone”, and the cheer was repeated from all of the defenders very loudly.
Moral was very high at this point and we believed we had adjusted our plans enough to hold for the evening. Supply packs were being sent to the gates as fast as they could be put together and some food and drink were had upon the field. At this point though dusk was leaving the field and night was full upon the field. We knew the worst was yet to come.
We didn’t have to wait very long before we heard the scurry of spiders feet. Then we saw them… not spiders at all, but Driders! They walked up in front of the second gate and parted to show they were carrying a pyramid shaped object of some sort. The object was obviously magical and inscribed with some sort of runes upon its surface. I can only assume it was one of the magical prisons with the letters E V I L inscribed upon it in some ancient magical language. At this point the half man half spider creatures did something and destroyed the ancient prison. Immediately 2 large undead Driders appeared upon the field and the fight began in earnest. Gate 2 was immediately pelted with entangling webs and various poisons were shot into the defenders. The reinforcements were in position already but were also suffering fro the onslaught. The call for assistance went up and Gates 3 and 1 sent more reinforcements to gate 2 and I came up from the Celestial Circle with what defenders I could manage. The Driders were being contained but barely. Worse they began to spread out sending a quarter of their force to gate 1 and a few others to gate 3 to stop Gate 2s reinforcements from coming over to assist any further. Kakera at some point I believe transformed into some creature like them (the driders not the undead) and walked outside the defenses at that time. The driders seemed to ignore her and she seemed content to sit amongst them for a while. But when she struck she struck fast and furiously destroying sets of attackers from behind before they knew what hit them. If not for her assistance in this portion of the defense I believe we may have lost here. But the 2 Death Driders were eventually put to rest and in short order mop up began. This fight lasted at least 30 minutes in and of itself.
At this time some of our mages announced they were able to relearn their spells and there was another general cheer throughout the field. I was approached by a messenger at this time as was Elenril Elentari and we were requested to leave the fortifications to perform a function for Duke Blackstone in reinforcing the northern holding line and helping slow down the advance of undead upon the defending adventurers. It was slow and steady fighting and my sword arm was very sore when the Duke requested I return to the adventurer’s encampment and once again aid in the primary defense. I tried as best I could to shake the dust of fallen undead off of myself before I arrived back at the camp, but I am certain I looked a sight. Personally I believe it’s a noble’s duty to try and look presentable even in the direst of circumstances. No especially then. It inspires others to believe hope is not lost and gives a feeling of confidence to those serving under your command.
When I arrived at the camp I had just missed an assault. I was told it was the second to occur in my absence. Apparently Lord Malik Baine had taken the field and was confronted by some Chaos elementals that were trying to stop him entering the fortification also. I have no idea how long this fight lasted, but everyone was very happy about the outcome. Apparently Lord Baine had thought this a necessary if fool hearty battle to enter into and had brought with him his Last Will and Testament. Lord Dawnware informed me that after his bottle was destroyed it was read aloud to the defenders and the cheered loudly. I do not have the exact text at this time, but it is my intent to get a copy and include it in my journal. From what I gather his final will included some sort of pep talk to the defenders to keep any undead from entering into the final door. Previously on the Fey trees, Lord Malik Baine had mentioned he had no interest in the prize, but would come to claim it to prevent others from claiming it and making unnecessary trouble for himself and the Citizens of Blackstone.
The next assault was very rough indeed. There were many Condition Rabbit calls and at several instances we had more than one gate losing ground to the assault. At several points I grabbed stacks of scrolls from the aid station and ran to one gate or another to use them all up very quickly pushing the attackers back. I hope I truly helped and feel that I must have as we held off once again. By this point in the battle, several “Bottles of Wine” had been destroyed, and the field both inside the walls and especially outside was littered with rotting and crumbling corpses. Luckily the wind had died down and the temperature had dropped significantly. I would not want to be in this place with the warm sun baking down upon all that carnage.
We were then surprised when many adventurers’ transformations went active. There were all kinds of creatures dressed in the garb of adventurers. Then it appeared. A small masked creature ran at gate 1. It was wearing a sparkling mask of some sort and wielding a single sword. I broke through gate 1 with almost no effort. Its blade seemed to change its effects almost as often as it was swung at the attackers. Sleep did seem a recurring effect from it though and eventually the creature was put down. As soon as the deathblow was delivered on the body, the creature immediately jumped up at full strength and began attacking anew. A wall of adventurers was between it and the doorway though and it went down again. This time we waiting for it to die on its own, only to find that after 5 minutes it jumped up again. This went on for some time, as the creature seemed destined not to die and was slowly making its way closer to the doorway. At this point we drug its unconscious body into the celestial circle and verified some of our suspicions. It was a nightmare elemental of some sort, though partially undead. Which meant it could enter the doorway. After further identification the creature again revived and its blade enslaved me to let it out of the circle. Friends were immediately there with an enslavement antidote, but I had already released the creature. Once we again knocked the creature into unconsciousness, I delivered the deathblow myself in the manner I had discerned would work from the identification.
After this His Grace sent word that only one foe remained to try and claim the prize. We cheered and prepared for our defense, as it would be upon us soon. It seemed the troops of the Ducky had destroyed several of the foes we thought to face outside of our sight while we fought where we were.
We checked out timepieces and realized we had only to hold out for 10 more minutes and moral improved much more. Then with just 5 minutes remaining we heard to most awful screams coming from the woods. Banshees, that meant Mary Death was coming. We were low on life spells at this point, but were determined to hold. All life items were prepared and we watch the glowing eyes move through the trees. Closer and closer the undead came. Screams rising through the night making the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Then we realized our real problem. Mary Death wasn’t alone at all. She had joined forces with Mclaerus.
Mary deaths forces went straight into Gate 1, and barely did they pause for the wall of force in the way. Within seconds the entire front line of gate 1s defenders were laying upon the ground. I ran over and lifed Viscount Mithrilmist. Then ran over to assist gate 2. I hoped the Viscount still had enough life spells in memory to help his comrades get back up and into a defensive position.
Mclearus broke through gate 2 almost as fast and Mary had Gate 1. All forces from gate 3 except 2 magicians were pulled back to aid in the courtyard. Those to magicians put up circles of power so close to each other and in such a position to the gate as to bar entry from gate 3 for a time. We knew some of the undead on the field could destroy formal magic by touch, but we also knew they were not at gate 3.
Gate 1 got back up and reset its line, but they were fighting a straight backwards-slow retreat. Hoping to slowly whittle down the attackers and get assistance before all was lost. Gate 2 however was facing a large construct affected by sound. I had faced this foe before and always we had run in the end. Some adventurers began to sing and this caused the creatures great pain. I threw Silence spells at it and those also seemed to cause it pain. When its blade struck me it felt like when your sword accidentally strikes a very hard object and causes those uncomfortable vibrations all the way up your arm, only much worse.
Gate 2 was pushed back faster than gate 1 at first, but they rallied and pushed back. Gate 1 was still in slow retreat when the attackers regrouped on Gate 2 and attacked again in earnest. This time they were already within the gate by about 20 feet and could bring much more of their numbers to bear on us at once. Gate 2 was turned with their backs toward gate 1, and were being pushed backwards at a rapid pace. Sadly this was where the Banshees had advanced to and the defenders were hit from behind hard. After a few minutes of this one large line was formed in the courtyard when the call of Condition Rabbit went up from the 2 magicians at gate 3.
Nothing had gotten past them, but they had seen the runner get through. I broke and ran as well as Barn De’Kiernan and Lord Dawnware to stop the runner. We pushed hard and fast straight through a few attackers and closed fast upon the lone individual. The 2 magicians wanted desperately I am certain to join the chase, but they had their orders from Lord Dawnware “Under no circumstances drop these circles.” They are good men and followed the noble order, though I think personally they would not have been in much trouble for giving chase at that point. Lord Dawnware is understanding of how conditions on a field can change a situation and was surprised to learn after the fact that those were his orders. He usually leaves an unless statement to allow people to stay alive and get help.
At any rate the runner got into the doorway. He couldn’t have had many seconds left to gain entry and we were greatly disheartened, but we still had undead to deal with. Since we were alive and couldn’t go after the one who went inside we decided quickly to dispatch those remaining undead and get our stuff together to leave. Before whatever he was going to become could come out and face us. Within a few more moments all of the undead on the field just disappeared. That left several golems and things to deal with and we were attempting to get those down when undead poured out of the doorway. We already had many friends down on the field and were not well positioned for an attack from that direction so soon.
I saw several friends fall to the sound golem and I used a few destroy spells to remove an armor golem from my way of aiding them. When I got to my friends I was face to face with the crystalline creature once again. I looked over my shoulder and realized I had the earth and celestial circles at my back, and they were empty of people! I immediately set to taunting the creature and hitting it with spells to keep its interest on me. Viscount Mithrilmist ran over to tell me we were in general retreat and to get out when a lich approached. He realized I was in the earth circle and joined me still facing the lich and golem. He was very surprised indeed when I recognized the creature into the earthen circle of power with us. I yelled out and we jumped out the back of the circle and we ran to the celestial circle. In we jumped and the lich was screaming at us. The golem must have been intelligent because its thunderous voice started yelling “Let me out!” so much that the lich actually turned to it and yelled for it to shut up! It of course didn’t listen which was mildly amusing to us at the time.
But I was there for more important reasons. My friends were on the ground close but I couldn’t see them in the dark. Delwyn and I have done this many time in the past but never from the position of being a direct target. Suddenly we realized our friends were not to be seen on the field. Our hope was they were not animated as undead creations, but were instead rescued by others as we were dealing with the golem.
I looked down and saw the banner of Queen Catherine laying on my backpack. My last life spell remained within it and I grabbed it up and threw it into my saddlebags. The lich began to taunt us and actually offered to let Delwyn run away as long as the elf (me) stayed. Mclearus has a definite hatred for my kind. Delwyn turned to discuss a plan to get out and saw me throwing equipment into my saddlebags and my backpack. I explained I planned to make a break for it and I was going to save as much of our friend’s stuff as we could. I had the saddlebags almost full, and the backpack was very close when Mclearus walked up. The lich explained we had trapped the golem and were hiding in the circle. Then as we were trying to do up the bindings on the bags before there were more than 2 foes paying attention to only us the worst possible thing in the world happened.
Mclearus reached out and with an incant I had not before heard destroyed the celestial circle of power. I ran left Delwyn ran right. My Displacement and shield magic both went off as I made for distance. I ran past an armor golem, which gave pursuit hitting me repeatedly with damage that went straight through the shield I was carrying. I back peddled and fumbled trying hard to drop nothing as I ran backwards fumbling with my leg pouch the whole time. Aura, I needed spell aura to defend myself and I had none in my hands. Finally after being hit for the 20th time by the creature my hand closed around some aura. I incanted an imprison spell and targeted myself.
I was hurt bad, very bad. I had no cure mortal wounds potions left on me that I knew of. And all the bottles I had thrown into my bag were not labeled. The Golem turned to see its master and I dropped the imprison. I incanted a Cure Serious Wounds spell and a Cure Wounds spell as I again ran down the road. Delwyn joined me coming out gate 2 as I had run out gate 1. Side by side we ran with the undead all around us, until I turned around and realized I was alone again. Delwyn was nowhere to be seen.
I stopped to put on my backpack and adjust my load. I hoped my friends had gotten out alive, but I had seen no one but Delwyn for the past 10 minutes. Now of course I was totally alone in the dark with a hoard of angry elf hating undead and golems. As I began to try and get my load better upon my back in case I had to fight again I realized I had not done the binding properly. Most of the equipment I had tried to save was strewn all down the road I had just run down. The banner of Queen Catherine was lost as well. I had saved that banner from the Great Dark Swamp and had hoped to return it to King Mykel Endarr II, should I ever see him again. Crestfallen I decided to make my way to the tavern and see who else lived.
On the road to the tavern I saw a liquid light bouncing alone towards the tavern. I thought I had seen that light before and called out “who goes”. The light stopped the figure turned towards me and approached. I recognized Meliah but her hat and clothes and asked if she had seen anyone else. She struck me with her sword. Once twice 3 times. I was stunned and trying hard to think why she could do such a thing as I brought up my shield and drew my sword. Then it hit me, Meliah was a warrior and could have hurt me far worse were she not just an animated corpse. I struck the creature and it fell quickly to my blade. I reached out and incanted a life spell from a small leather book I had kept in my saddlebags. It didn’t work and her body dissipated. She had been undead for to long. I picked up her equipment and went on to the tavern hoping to see her again.
At the tavern I ran into Delwyn again. He was carrying Dame Kaiya’s equipment. It seemed she had gone to resurrect also. But we were still all alone in the tavern and it had been 20 minutes since the general retreat had sounded. I snuck back up to the field to find the undead not present. I grabbed what goods I could find with Delwyn and we returned to the tavern. I had found Duncan’s packs and some random equipment…swords, potions, pouches, and one of the Dukes personal scrolls for Destroying Formal Magic. These I brought back to the tavern and there we found the barbarian Blue. He had just successfully resurrected and said there were more at the Dukes encampment resurrecting. Dame Kaiya showed up and we gave her the equipment we had recovered of hers. Then Caliphar Belmont showed up with Cormyn and some others. It seemed many of the adventurers had simply run into the woods once someone yelled for teams of one to escape.
I later learned that there was an attempt at organized retreat, but the undead pursued them mercilessly. People were falling and the more defense was mounted the stronger the opposition was to it. I got word Sir Ruendil had spirit walked out of Stonereach with as many as he could carry to try and save them. I remembered being included in that contingency plan and hoped someone had gotten my spot. I decided to take the equipment I had saved to my tent and bring the people whose it was to it later. Thus I wouldn’t be guarding a large pile of other people’s stuff in the tavern in case the undead came back.
That’s when Duke Blackstone walked in. He informed us that the undead had left suddenly and they had no idea why or where they went. He also said it was ok for people to return to Stonereach. I went to take the stuff back anyways and found a couple people hiding on the way. Turns out they had heard the call for all clear and thought it was undead trying to trick them into coming out. Who can blame them? Slowly people returned. I ran into Duncan and returned his belongings to him and some of Caliphar's as well to Caliphar. Though now that I am writing this I see I have one of Caliphars scroll books in my possession. I shall return it to him at the next Therendry gather I guess.
We were just beginning to feel better about our survival when Sathen came up with the news he had successfully resurrected. While its sad that he had to resurrect, it’s a good thing he did resurrect successfully. We took this as good news then and were all sitting down starting to get giddy on Tygil and Roxi’s porch when the body of Kakera (boo) reappeared on the porch. She had failed to successfully resurrect. Roxi let out a scream and Ramsus Belmont rifted in. Things get muddled here, possibly because Ramsus is a vampire now, or possibly due to the high emotions, but I know I picked up Kekera’s body and took it to my tent to lay it out properly and cover it. I then gave over all extra equipment I had and checked to find out if there were any more spirits waiting to resurrect. Once I learned there were no more spirits I packed up and made straight for Therendry. Roxi and Sathen traveling with me. I intend to take the remains straight to High Lord Tao in Kuroi Kaji. I have my writ upon me for entry into the under-dark. I will leave Sathen and Roxi at the gate and inform the High-Lord they are there. It will be for him to decide if they may enter his city or not.
This ends my tale of the harvest gathering, October 606.
_________________
Count Simeon Silvercord
Count of Fellmyst
Arch-Wizard of Cunning and Rescourcefulness